


Headcanon: Music in Q-branch

by Anyawen



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: 007 Fest 2020, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Silence Is Golden, except when q needs some noise, team00
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25552288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anyawen/pseuds/Anyawen
Summary: The agents and administrative staff of  MI6 have all learned to direct their inquiries to R when music is audible in Q-branch. The Quartermaster is working, and he’s in the zone.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28





	Headcanon: Music in Q-branch

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Voculae who let me poke them endlessly with questions about music.
> 
> Written for 2020 007 fest's 'Q Branch Day'.

Q does not like his office. No matter how brightly it's lit, it always feels dark and subterranean. Setting aside the fact that it _is_ subterranean, it shouldn't feel like a cave. In spite of warm lighting and large screens like windows to the cyber world, it still does.

He avoids his office, preferring to work out in the branch at a standing desk. He only ever retreats to his office to do paperwork so that the minions don't hear him cursing at accounting (though he has no issue with them hearing him curse agents who bring back broken gear, or no gear at all), or on those rare occasions when true privacy is required. Surprisingly, given the nature of their work and their workplace, the demand for the sort of privacy that requires walls, doors, and noise dampening fields, is relatively low. This means that, for the most part, Q works in the bullpen, surrounded by workstations and minions.

Out in the bullpen, it's never exactly quiet. There's the constant hum of machines, the shuffling of papers, the shifting of 20 humans in chairs, and the strains of whatever music the minions have playing. It doesn't matter that it's over headphones or airpods, it's frequently loud enough to be heard in the room regardless. Not usually loud enough to identify, but still vaguely audible.

It wouldn't matter if the music were blaring through the room, however, when Q speaks. The minions are always primed to hear him, whether he's explaining what a bit of code is meant to do and how it works, discussing the design specs of a new Q-branch gadget, guiding a mission over comms, or berating an agent (usually Bond) for losing equipment. It's always enlightening. Or entertaining. Or both. When Q speaks, they listen.

There is one phrase, though, that the minions listen for from Q above any other. 

“Gimme a beat.”

When they hear those words from their Overlord, there's a flash of panicked excitement in the room as they race to route their musical selections to the Q-branch speakers, saturating the room with sound. Anything with a solid beat will work. The minions have filled the branch with electronic dance music with a strong drum and bass line, metal with wailing electric guitars, heavy tribal drums, eclectic funk, and pop music with a bit of bounce. 

Q never notices the faces the minions make when one of their colleague’s musical selections isn’t to their taste. He’s already deep in the music, letting it energize and focus him, as he tracks whatever hacker was foolhardy enough to attempt to breach his firewalls. Around him the minions make bets on how many songs it will take before Q has the hacker’s balls on a stick. R keeps an eye on the situation, but the notes she’s taking are for Bond. He’s added several new bands to their home music collection based on the songs Q responds to best when he’s working.

(Bond has a habit of thanking R for her observations with champagne. She’s not at all averse to this.)

When the hacker has been tracked, identified, and secured, Q rouses from his trance-like state and frowns at the music thumping through the Q-branch speakers. The minions are quick to sense the change in his focus, and the music is stopped. The Q-branch brand of silence, filled with shuffling, rustling, and murmuring, descends again as Q, perhaps, sends an email to M about the disposition of the hacker. Two of his best coders came to him through their attempts to break his firewalls. He’s not sure if anyone knows that’s how he came to MI6 as well. He isn’t sure it matters.

What does matter is that Q-branch works. With its minions recruited directly out of school, or from industry, or from hacker spaces where they may have worn hats other than white. Wherever they come from, whatever they listen to, they’re his team. He directs them like a conductor does an orchestra, and they make beautiful music together.

And when he needs it, they give him a beat. The agents and administrative staff of MI6 have all learned to direct their inquiries to R when music is audible in Q-branch. The Quartermaster is working, and he’s in the zone.


End file.
